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Saturday, March 2, 2013

SouthLAnd S5E3 "Babel" review

"Babel"

Genesis 11:9
"That
is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the
whole world..."

In episode
three, the breakdown of the LAPD dispatch system adds to the confusion that
already exists for law enforcement in the City of Angels: over four million
people speaking 100 different languages.

This episode
was owned by J. Michael Muro (epi director and DP), Shawn Hatosy and guest star
Emily Bergl. More on why later in the review.

Lydia seems
to be moving on quickly from her mother's untimely death; already packing up
her mom's things and not missing a step at work. She and Ruben investigate the
murder of a young man, the third son lost to a single mom...two of them drug
related. Regina King has never given a bad performance - even the brief scene
in the restroom where she talks on the phone to her son's father (Terrell) and
later the encounter with Terrell's wife, we FEEL her pain and frustration. She
is a flawless actress. It is heartening to see Lydia finally trying to bond
with her son, Christopher. After the murder investigation of the episode, I
think the realization that he is the only family she has left, the fact he is her
very own flesh and blood and just how important it is to connect, has finally sunk
in.

Ben seemed
less arrogant and more compassionate this episode; a trend I hope that
continues. He seemed to delight in the puppet "Stranger Danger"
presentation to the elementary school children and seemed less annoyed with
Sammy discussing his on-going woes with ex-wife Tammi. He, of all the
characters, got to understand most intensely the "babel" and
confusion in dealing with a multicultural population after the shooting and
aftermath at the community center.

Cooper stops being an FTO ("I'm sick
of hearing my own voice" he tells Sgt. Hill) and is riding now with a
senior partner Henry "Hank" Lucero. They encounter several
"babel" situations. An elderly lady assaults a skateboarder after he
bumps into her, calling him a "schvartzer" (German for black, more
commonly used in the United States as a substitute for the word nigger
according to the Urban Dictionary). A
car crashes into a Filipino restaurant, the driver somehow clearly intoxicated
and we have the beginnings of a "Dixie Cup Conspiracy" (per @RonnisTweets
at Twitter). The driver babels scripture & the Filipino owner blames the
mysterious "white lady." Later, we see gang members urinating on a
deaf man; his babelbeing
sign language. An erratic driver is stopped by Coop & Lucero; he is also a
Dixie Cup conspiracy victim and his babel is Spanish...fortunately, Lucero can
communicate. The Dixie Cup conspirator is a kid selling lemonade garnished with
datura, a plant which leads people to hallucinate.
Coop recognizes the flower later leading to Lucero's "Are you a closeted
botanist?" comment. And their day continues.

Dewey's boot
literally gets clothes lined in pursuit of notorious gangster "Road
Runner," his patrol car gets a graffiti job in the hood, and you can tell
Dewey is old school and longs for a return to those times. Coop & Lucero catch
Road Runner in a traffic stop, much to Dewey's delight ("I'm Officer Wile
E. Coyote and we're going to fry your road runner ass"). And I don't think
Coop ever got the "Bofa Deez Nuts" joke.

Sammy and
Tammi have a violent encounter when Tammi fails to bring Nate to Sammy at the
appointed time. Sammy stops by Victor's (Tammi's boyfriend's) apartment to
confront her. Sammy and Tammi have always had a passionate, tumultuous
relationship, both in marriage and divorce. This scene, played to perfection by Shawn and Emily, is in my
opinion one of the rawest scenes ever shown on SouthLAnd...and there have been
many. Her craziness & paranoia and his desperation & anger were
palpable through the screen. Brilliant, powerful scene. Kudos to both actors.

The ultimate
star of every SouthLAnd episode he directs is J. Michael Muro. His use of
lighting, framing and sound is genius. He's not afraid to shoot from odd or
unusual angles (always capturing the gritty beauty of Los Angeles in the
southland), put the camera in the actor's faces, capture every sound needed for
the scene (Ben & Sammy's heightened breathing during the entrance into the
community center) and he never abandons the run & gun documentary style of
shooting that is off the hook for episodic television.

Random
musings:

1) Beautiful
scene with Coop and his former FTO Hicks (guest star Gerald McRaney). I hope to see
more of Hicks and how the always exemplaryMichael Cudlitz plays out Coop's
reflection on his career and life.

2) The
attention to police detail could not be missed during this episode, even by the
most casual viewer. Coop keeps his hand on the door while questioning Road
Runner at the traffic stop; Lucero tells Coop in that same scene, "I can't
see his hands." Another example is Ben touching the back of Sammy's leg to
let him know exactly where he was and was ready to make entry into the
community center.

3) First
time we've seen Sgt. Hill in uniform outside the station.

"Everybody
here is a witness. Problem is no one can speak English." Babel. Watch it
at least twice.

6 comments:

Great review for a great episode!! Question please: How many and which episodes will GERALD MCRANEY be in?? I heard he'll be in about 5 eps. He is a wonderful actor and I'm sure all the scenes between him and Coop with be awesome! Thanks for your reply! :)

Check our episode synopses page. If Mr. McRaney is in an episode, it will be listed there. Bottom line on pictures is this: We only have as many as TNT releases for promotional purposes or ones that we screen cap. PLEASE feel free to browse our photo gallery page and it's link.

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